Effects of precursor concentration on electric properties of BiFe 0.98 Mn 0.02 O 3 thin films prepared by sol–gel method

BiFe 0.98 Mn 0.02 O 3 (BFMO) thin films with different precursor concentration (0.20, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.35 mol/L) were deposited on ITO/glass substrate by sol–gel method. The influences of precursor concentration on the microstructure, surface morphology, ferroelectric property, leakage current behavior, and conduction mechanism of the deposited BFMO films were systematically investigated. XRD and SEM analysis show that the effect of precursor concentration on the microstructure and morphology of the films is very significant. P–E hysteresis loop indicate that the BFMO film with 0.3 mol/L has the maximum double remnant polarization (2 P r ), which is 149.3 μC/cm 2 with a double coercive field (2 E c ) of 707.2 kV/cm at tested electric field of 1026 kV/cm. The BFMO film with 0.3 mol/L has the minimum leakage current density which is 9.8 × 10 −8 A/cm 2 at tested electric field of 300 kV/cm, and the current conduction mechanisms are Ohmic mechanism and the Child’s Law mechanism. As the precursor concentration increases, the transition voltage from Ohmic to Child’s law increases. Graphical abstract